This invention relates to a wiring board equipped with a connector (hereinafter referred to connector-equipped wiring board) to be built in a case such as a battery pack and a method for manufacturing the same.
For example, a notebook computer or portable telephone is equipped with a battery pack for use in a battery such as lithium ion battery or manganese battery so as to be removable from a body. A connector-equipped wiring board which is connectable to a socket on the body side is built in the case such as a battery pack.
FIG. 9 is a perspective view of an exemplary ordinary connector-equipped wiring board. As seen from FIG. 9, a connector-equipped wiring board X includes a wiring board with an electronic components C mounted thereon and a connector 300 formed in a shape of a male housing, which is connected to the wiring board 300 by wires 200. The one ends 200a of the wires 200 are bonded to wiring patterns 110 on the wiring board 100 by soldering. The other ends 200b of the wires 200 are electrically connected to terminals (not shown) within the housing of the connector 300. The connector 300 is adapted to be freely extendable by the wires 200 which can be freely deformed within the case (not shown) of the battery pack and its tip partially protrudes outside from the case so that it is mated with the female socket (not shown) on the side of the body not shown.
In the manufacture of such a connector-equipped wiring board X, the connector 300 is previously connected to the wires 200 to prepare an integral component. On the other hand, on the wiring board 100, electronic components C are previously mounted. Thereafter, the one ends 200a of the wires 200 are soldered to the wiring patterns 110 on the wiring board 100, respectively. Thus, the connector-equipped wiring board X as shown in FIG. 9 is completed.
Meanwhile, in a mounting step of mounting the electronic components C on the wiring board 100, automation has been in progress from before by using e.g. an automated mounting device. On the other hand, in a connecting step of connecting the wires 200 to the wiring board 100, since the integral component composed of the connector 300 and wires 200 is manufactured in a separated manufacturing line and is difficult to handle, the wires 200 are manually soldered to the wiring board 100. In such a manufacturing method, equipment for making the respective components such as the wiring board and the connector is required. In addition, a consistent manufacturing system by factory automation cannot be structured. Therefore, this method is inferior in productivity, and could not improve the quality and reduce the production cost.
In view of the circumstance described above, an object of this invention is to provide a connector-equipped wiring board and a method for manufacturing the same which can easily improve the productivity and quality and reduce the production cost by adopting the same structure for the connector as that of the wiring board.
In order to solve the above problem, this invention takes the following technical means.
The connector-equipped wiring board according to the first aspect of this invention is a connector-equipped wiring board, wherein a connector connected to a wiring board with an electronic component mounted thereon through a conductive member can be freely routed to the wiring board, characterized in that said connector is made of a board having an exposed terminal pattern formed on its surface and electrically connected to said conductive member.
Namely, the above connector-equipped wiring board is characterized in that the terminal pattern constitutes a card edge type male connector, and constitutes a connector-equipped wiring board which can be manufactured to provide great reliability.
As a method for manufacturing the connector-equipped wiring board according to the first aspect, the method for manufacturing a connector-equipped wiring board according to the second aspect of this invention is a method of manufacturing a connector-equipped wiring board, wherein a connector connected to a wiring board with an electronic component mounted thereon through a conductive member can be freely routed to the wiring board, comprising the steps of:
a board member making step of making a board member having a wiring pattern corresponding to said wiring board and another board member with a terminal pattern exposed on the surface so as to correspond to said connector, and arranging these boards as a pair;
mounting step of mounting an electronic component on the surface of the board member so as to communicate with the wiring pattern of the board member corresponding to said wiring board; and
connecting step of connecting said wiring pattern and said terminal pattern to each other though said conductive member.
In accordance with the connector-equipped wiring board according to the first aspect and the method for manufacturing a connector-equipped wiring board according to the second aspect, the connector can be formed of the same board as the wiring board is formed. Specifically, the connector can be manufactured by the same manufacturing process as the wiring board as a xe2x80x9ccard edge type male connectorxe2x80x9d with an terminal pattern exposed on the surface so that the board itself can be inserted into a socket. Therefore, it is not necessary to provide the individual manufacturing equipment for each of the wiring board and connector. This easily leads to improvement of the productivity and quality of the product and cost reduction through a consistent production system by factory automation.
In a preferred embodiment of the connector-equipped wiring board according to the first aspect, said conductive member is formed of a flexible wiring plate.
In a preferred embodiment of the method for manufacturing a connector-equipped wiring board according to the second aspect, a flexible wiring plate is used as said conductive member.
In accordance with the embodiments described above, the flexible wiring plate can be brought nearer to the surfaces of the wiring board and the connector which are planar so that these wiring board and connector can be connected to each other through the flexible wiring plate. For this reason, the flexible wiring plate thus connected can be bent so that the connector is situated freely relatively to the wiring board. In addition, in connecting the flexible wiring plate, it can be easily handled as a flexible wiring plate as compared with a fine wire. The flexible wiring plate can be arranged to cover the electronic component on the wiring board in such a fashion that the one end of the flexible wiring plate is connected to the vicinity of the one end of the wiring board and the other end thereof is connected to the board serving as the connector arranged on the other end of the wiring board. In such a configuration, the wiring board with improved protection and great reliability can be acquired.
In another preferred embodiment of the first aspect, the board of said connector has a depression for stopping away from the terminal pattern.
In such a configuration, for example, where the wiring board is housed in a case and the connector is arranged outside the case while extending out the conductive member from a slot made in the case, the connector can be fixedly inserted into a socket outside the case through the depression, and can surely make an electric connection to the outside through the connector.
In another preferred embodiment of the second aspect, said board member making step includes a step of integrally forming the board members corresponding to said wiring board and said connector from a common frame board, and the board members corresponding to said wiring board and said connector are separated from said frame board after said connecting step.
In such a configuration, the respective board members corresponding to the wiring board and connector are made integrally to the frame board. A pair or plural pairs of board members required for the wiring board(s) and the connector(s) can be simultaneously made from such a frame board. Thus, the wiring boards belonging to different kinds and connectors can be made from the frame board which is a single raw board. This further improves the productivity of the connector-equipped wiring board.
In another embodiment of the second aspect, said connecting step includes a step of bonding conductive portions extended out from both ends of said conductive member to said wiring pattern and said terminal pattern by soldering.
In such a configuration, the conductive member can be simultaneously connected to both the wiring board and connector by soldering. Therefore, the conductive member can be coupled with these wiring board and connector at a time. This further improves the productivity of the connector-equipped wiring board.
The other features and advantages of this invention will be more apparent from the following description of various embodiments.